The long-range goal of this application is to augment and strength the neuroscience research capabilities of faculty and trainees at Meharry Medical College. Moreover, neuroscience faculty members at Meharry Medical College seek to assist in improving the competitive status of the school's research relative to other health science centers in the United States. The Specialized Neuroscience Research Program (SNRP) will help to create a research environment wherein faculty and trainees will enhance their research skills and capabilities to efficiently conduct high quality research, to disseminate their research findings through peer- reviewed publications and presentations at national meetings, and to compete with greater success for independent extramural research funds. The specific aims (measurable objectives) of the current applications are to: 1) facilitate the acquisition of mainstream funding by each of the subproject PIs by the end of the project period; 2) attain a 100% level of extramural funding by Neuroscience Center faculty and promote the acquisition of an additional three mainstream extramural awards by the end of the project period; and 3) increase the number of peer-reviewed publications by neuroscience investigators to a mean of two per year by the end of the project period. The Meharry SNRP is a joint effort involving Vanderbilt University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The proposed program consists of a core and two collaborative research subprojects. The core provides administrative support for neuroscience faculty with an emphasis on the collaborative projects. Core faculty development activities include grantwriters' workshops, technical workshops, a seminar program and an annual regional neuroscience symposium.